Armor
by Bookwrm389
Summary: Episode 29 of Brotherhood. An injured Mei awakens inside an empty suit of armor just in time to learn the true nature of the Fuhrer of Amestris. Who is her enemy now? The bean alchemist? The homunculi? All she knows is...she is protected.


_A.N. It's probably not very good, but I just had to write something about Mei. She's so cute and determined! I love seeing her and Al together in any capacity, friends or...otherwise. Since this part hasn't been dubbed yet, I paraphrased the dialogue from the manga translation. Also, first time writing about Mei, so let me know how well or badly I did!_

Armor

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...

Someone was rocking her, slowly, gently. For a moment, Mei's bewildered mind was caught up in a fanciful dream that she was a baby in a wicker crib, being rocked back and forth as her mother hummed a lullaby above her head. Yes, that was where she was, how this place felt. She was nestled in a cocoon of protection, cradled like a precious doll, completely and utterly _safe_.

Except that she _wasn't_ safe! No, she wasn't safe at all! Father was still nearby, that horrible, filthy mass of...of _filth!_ Mei's stomach roiled at the very thought of all those displaced souls crammed within that monster, forced to_ live on_ long after their bodies had died and continuously feed their life energy into that thing. That...homunculus? Was that what servant-Scar had called them?

_Scar!_ Was he alright? Mei couldn't remember, she could hardly remember anything except that he had been fighting, and then he had been hurt, oh no, he had been _hurt_. And Xiao Mei! Where was she?

Mei bit her lip, forcibly channeling her energy to her immediate surroundings. The presence of life forms lightly touched her soul, some human, some notably_ not_. And..._there_ was Xiao Mei! She wasn't far, easily within reach and seemed to be unhurt. But what was stopping her from reaching Mei? No matter how Mei looked at it, the pieces of the puzzle just wouldn't fit together, scattering like the beads of a necklace when the string was cut.

Mei changed tactics and focused_ in _rather than out. Her body hurt all over from Gluttony's attack, aching like an old woman's, but none of her injuries were life-threatening. She licked her lips and tasted blood, just enough to be worrisome, not enough to stop her. She could still fight, she _could_...

If her body would just _move._

Mei turned her head experimentally and moaned a little when her forehead hit something hard and metallic. She tried the other direction, extending her feet until her toes met a similar wall. This was an oddly small room. It was hardly big enough to house her body, and the walls all curved outward. Perhaps she and Xiao Mei were prisoners, but then why were they moving?

"For fuck's sake, Al, what did you bring _her _for?"

That rough whisper came from somewhere behind Mei's head, and her heart swelled with anger and heartbreak. The bean alchemist! Now it all made sense! She had been abducted by that heartless incubus posing as a beautiful prince, and now he would whisk her away to a fortress far from her homeland and force her to be his bride! Mei's hand shot into the folds of her robe in search of her knives. He wouldn't have her virgin body without a fight!

"I couldn't just leave her behind! She's wounded!"

Mei squeaked when the second voice reverberated through the walls around her, and the knife fell from her hand with a clatter. That was the voice of the armored brute that had kidnapped Xiao Mei! But something strange was going on...

The sense of moving abruptly stopped, and Mei had to brace her hands against the walls to keep from falling over. No, not walls. This was the same type of metal that composed the armor of that other man. She was inside the armor.

Inside the _empty_ armor.

Mei recoiled from the chilled metal all around her. Metal that contained _nothing_. No pulse, no beating heart, no chi...there was only _death_ in here! Mei wrapped her arms around her knees and shut her eyes tight, sick to her stomach and trembling all over. The bean alchemist's companion was as much a monster as those homunculi! Could he be a demon of some kind, or a robot made to serve the other? Amestris was truly a land of evil if these were the creatures she faced at every turn!

A little noise above her head made Mei look up, and she could have cried at the sight of Xiao Mei squeezing under the helmet and dropping down to her. Mei took the shivering panda cat in her arms and shushed her quickly. "I know, I know," she breathed. "I'm scared too, Xiao Mei..."

A door opened nearby, and that awful Envy creature starting talking about wrath. Wrath...wasn't that another word for rage? Mei wished desperately that she had paid more attention in her lessons in Amestrian. _Anything_ that could help her understand what was going on. She thought she had been imprisoned by the bean and his armor, but...

"Wrath?" the bean alchemist gasped. "Fuhrer King Bradley!"

Mei started. She knew _those _words. Fuhrer Bradley was the king of this land, a military leader as well as a respected diplomat! Oh, _surely_ he was a man of great power and wisdom! He could save her and get her back to her own people!

The empty armor moved again, but only for a short distance, and then it dipped a little and stopped completely. Mei longed to cry for help, but though Envy was gone, there were two new voices out there. One human, and one..._not_. Most definitely _not_. No, it would not be wise to give away her position. The homunculi may still want to kill her now that Mei knew of the underground lair and the one called Father.

First, she had to escape from this armor somehow. Once she was out in the open, Mei could use her alkahestry and martial arts to hold them all off and make a run for it. She squinted at the cursed armor around her, searching for a way out as the voices outside conversed.

Mei's eyes halted, transfixed at the sight of an array traced high above her head. Alkahestry? No, it was an eight-pointed star instead of the standard five. Alchemy. Perhaps it powered the armor in some way, but where did it pull its energy from? Not the ground, surely. Mei would have sensed that. And...was that _blood _it was drawn with? If it had been her own, Mei would have suspected a unique trap set to prevent her escape, but the blood was too old, so old that little bits were chipping off.

Slowly so as not to alert her captors, Mei stood and stretched up to place her hands on either side of the array. It was already active and had been for a long time. That much, she could tell. Mei shut her eyes and let her thumbs drift over the outer lines, darting in to taste the essence of it, find its purpose...

—all was white, and she was rushing forward against a great tide, compressing and stretching, stopping before a pair of mighty doors, and there was an emaciated child with sad, fragile golden eyes watching her from behind a curtain of hair so limp and brittle that she longed to stroke it, comb it, cradle him, protect him—

—_not my soul, not my soul, you don't belong here, go back, please—_

A dismayed cry ripped from Mei's throat, and she threw herself back from the array, crashing into the chest plate noisily. At the same time, the armor around her jerked in alarm that she could _feel_. For just a split second, Mei knew the fear this boy lived with of having his very soul bound to this world by little more than a fragile array that was _already weak enough without her poking around in there, what if she scratches the blood-seal, please stay still, if they realize you're in there—!_

Mei broke her mind away from the faint energy still linking her to the array, and then her thoughts were her own again. Before she could even begin to understand what she had seen and felt, the armor rocked violently, faking a coughing fit to cover up the noise she had made.

"Fuhrer Bradley!" the bean alchemist stammered loudly. "I-I remember when you came to visit me in the hospital after Lab Five. I can't believe you fooled us so easily back then."

Another voice spoke that Mei assumed was Fuhrer Bradley. "At that time, I ordered you to forget this matter and all that it concerned, that you should be discreet and give no one your trust. That was all you needed to know. The three of you are important human resources to us. You must be kept alive."

Human resources...

Mei blanched. Resources like those disembodied souls that made up the homunculi? If the Fuhrer of Amestris knew of such things happening right below his feet, could speak of it so callously...could he be a homunculus as well? Mei's heart ached at the thought of all the people she had met on her journey through this land, all those kind and welcoming citizens that spoke of their leader as a warm and generous man with a loving family, not even guessing at his true nature...

But the bean alchemist and the armored boy knew. They were enemies of the homunculi. At least, that was the situation as Mei understood it. Even now, they continued to shield her from their sight. Mei would have suspected an ulterior motive, except for that thread of thought from earlier when she touched the blood-seal. The armored boy didn't want her to be discovered because...because he was afraid they would kill her. It hadn't been a selfish thought. Mei's heart was still in her throat from the feelings she had sensed—determination, protectiveness, along with a terrible, terrible _fear_.

Mei pulled a face. A princess of Xing did not go around allowing strange men to pick her up and hide her away! She would save herself, thank you! Mei braced the hand not holding Xiao Mei against the armor and got up on her toes to peek out under the helmet. There was the Fuhrer, filled to the brim with the same awful energy she had sensed near all the other homunculi. Sitting across the table from him were the bean alchemist and another soldier, a colonel who looked at his leader with the same abhorrence that Mei felt.

"As long as you behave yourselves until the time comes," Bradley said austerely, "no harm will come to you. That, I can promise."

"When the time comes," the bean alchemist repeated in a low voice. "And what happens to everyone else when that day arrives? The ones not lucky enough to be your 'sacrifices'?"

"As I said, Fullmetal Alchemist," Bradley responded. "There is no need for you to know."

Mei bristled at his audacity, feeling around with her toe for the knife she had dropped. If these homunculi were vicious enough to imprison the souls of hundreds of innocent people within their own bodies, then whatever they were planning could only be much worse. Someday, this evil may even spread to her country, and Mei would _not _tolerate that!

The bean alchemist looked down at his hand, toying with a silver watch with the crest of Amestris on the lid. "Fullmetal Alchemist, huh? You know, I originally became a State Alchemist for the sole purpose of getting my body back to the way it was. But I bet the entire program is just a way for you guys to gather all the sacrifices you need in one place. And if being with the military means helping fulfill your plans..."

He tossed the watch on the table. It skidded to a halt beside the Fuhrer's tea, dripping blood on the dark wood of the table.

"...then I'm no longer a State Alchemist!"

Bradley's eyes dropped to the watch briefly. "You're dog tag is covered in blood," he noted without concern. But Mei could taste the tension building in the room, and she quickly gauged the distance between her and the Fuhrer. Where on _earth_ was her knife? If she just had it in her hand, she could put it right through his remaining eye and buy these three some time to get away!

Mei grimaced at her train of thought, scratching Xiao Mei's ears absently to keep the frightened panda cat quiet. Not that she was feeling very generous toward the bean. Just because they shared a common enemy didn't make them allies! But these people _had _helped her. And this armor, for all its unnaturalness, didn't possess the same _wrongness _that hovered around the homunculi. Only one soul resided in here, and a benevolent one at that. He, at least, deserved the benefit of the doubt.

For now!

The bean alchemist leaned forward. "Whatever you're planning, I'm going to stop you!" he said in earnest. "Once we spread word to the other alchemists, they'll take matters into their own hands, and—!"

"What was that girl's name?" Bradley said suddenly. He tapped his temple with one finger as if to jog his memory. "Ah yes...Winry Rockbell."

Mei was momentarily distracted from all thoughts of assassination by the quiet, almost casual, threat when the Fuhrer mentioned that name. One look at the bean alchemist's stricken face told her enough. Despite the dire circumstances, Mei pouted. So he had been two-timing behind her back from the beginning! She should have known all along! Mei felt _very _sorry for this Winry.

"Born in Resembool," Bradley went on. "Though now she currently resides in Rush Valley. A skilled automail mechanic and quite valued by friends and customers alike. A childhood friend of yours, perhaps close enough to be called family. A nice, modest girl..."

_Does he have to rub it in my face? _Mei thought heartbrokenly, flushing deeper with every word. _The men of this country are just awful!_

The bean alchemist jumped to his feet, slamming his palms on the table hard enough to nearly topple the tea. "Don't you lay a hand on her! _Or_ anyone close to her!"

"Then what will you do?" Bradley said evenly, pushing the watch back in his direction. "If you refuse to cooperate, I _will _cut her down. Well, Fullmetal Alchemist?"

The armor trembled around her, and even now Mei faintly sensed waves of anger and fear radiating from the blood-seal. No one made a sound until finally the bean alchemist snatched up the watch and stuffed it back in his pocket, resuming his seat reluctantly. Bradley nodded curtly. "Good. I'm glad to see you understand the position you're in."

"Um..."

The Fuhrer's remaining eye flicked in their direction, and Mei ducked down quickly, certain that she had been seen. But Bradley didn't say anything at all. How much could he really see with that one eye anyway?

"We _do_ understand our position," the armored boy said carefully. "There's not much we can do to change it. So, as long as we don't go against you people...will you allow us to keep searching for a way to restore our bodies?"

The Fuhrer took a moment to answer. "I don't mind. Just as long as you don't try anything drastic. And you, Mustang? Do you have any plans to quit the military?"

The colonel spoke for the first time, just a few terse sentences consenting to take part in this most repugnant of affairs. Mei let herself slide down to the very bottom of the armor, hugging Xiao Mei fiercely as they began to move again. She was such a hopeless princess. Just look at the mess she had gotten herself into! First seduced by a little bean alchemist, then losing Xiao Mei, then attacked by chimeras and badly injured by a monster deep underground. And now she and her heart-sister were imprisoned in empty armor and hunted by the beasts that held all the power in this country and were determined to keep it that way.

How could a simple journey to save her clan have gone so horribly wrong? If she got out of this, Mei swore to all her ancestors she would throw out her romance novels and never again pray for adventure. This was quite enough for one lifetime!

"Oh, just a moment Alphonse."

Mei's instincts screamed a warning at the sound of a sword unsheathing. She looked around frantically and spotted her knife down one of the armor's legs. The thigh was just wide enough to admit her body, and she shimmied down feet first, hand stretched down for the knife handle.

And a sword stabbed straight through the armor, passing less than an inch above her head. Xiao Mei cried out shrilly in her ear and burrowed under her collar, quivering like a leaf. Mei slowly turned her head up to stare at the blade in numb horror, feeling little wisps of hair drift down the back of her neck after being neatly sliced off.

The energy from the blood-seal spiked, and Mei was drowning in blood. She saw Bradley's sword and heard the clean, slick sound of metal gliding into flesh, a choked cry, the weak _thump_ of a body going limp, lifeless...

—_no, no, NO, can't let another die in me, please God, no—!_

The sword moved sluggishly, taking an eternity to withdraw from the armor. Mei cowered in the top portion of the armored leg, expecting the sword to come back any second and end her life in a single, bloody strike...

—_just like Martel, no I can't take it—_

"I-Is there something wrong?" the armored boy stammered.

—_don't you dare try again, just leave her alone, damn you—!_

"No. You're all dismissed."

Mei waited until the homunculus was safely away from them before retrieving her knife and crawling back up into the main portion of the armor. She curled into the tiniest ball possible in case more swords came her way, clenching the knife handle so hard that her fingers ached. Xiao Mei licked the first few tears from her cheeks, but when they became too many to deal with the panda cat merely cuddled up under her chin with little reassuring mews. Mei couldn't even bring herself to accept that comfort. She wanted to go _home!_ She wanted to be with her clan in a country that made sense, with people that weren't monsters and a land that didn't feel like a mass graveyard.

Oh, Xing...her beloved Xing...her clan, her home...

_I'm so scared!_ Mei wailed in the loneliness of her mind. _Just let me get through this! Just let me go home!_

—_safe, you're safe with me, I won't let anyone hurt you, I promise—_

Mei sobbed into her sleeve when the energy from the blood-seal surrounded her, warm and tender, making her skin tingle. It was enough, just enough to push back the worst of her misery. She couldn't afford to succumb to this, not for long. Her mission was still before her, the fate of her clan riding on her shoulders. She was Mei Chang, the seventeenth princess of Xing! For the sake of her family...

—_for the sake of the one depending on me—_

Mei sniffed and held Xiao Mei close with one hand. The other, she laid against the armor that had protected her. Thanks to him, she had been given another chance to complete her journey and return to Xing with the secret of immortality in her hands. Weak as she was, hopeless and pitiful as she was, Mei vowed to gather up her courage and try again. And _this _time...

—_I will not fail again._

And the armor rocked her back and forth, back and forth.


End file.
